The Sports Rumors

College Football Weekend Recap

The much anticipated BCS rankings were released yesterday evening. Ohio State was ranked first, followed by South Florida, Boston College, LSU and Oklahoma. People still seemed to be surprised that South Florida was ranked second, but I don’t see why. Cal was ahead of them and they lost, USF had some quality wins and an undefeated record; it makes sense. Boston College is right on their tail and with a big game coming up next Thursday night in Blacksburg, VA versus the 11^th ranked Virginia Tech Hokies, they could take over the number two spot. Or, they could lose it and drop out of the top five completely, which leads me to my point about these rankings.

Most teams have played seven games by now and the USF’s and the BC’s are happy to be ranked where they are. But it means nothing. Why does it mean nothing? Because the majority of the teams ranked in the top ten aren’t going to win out. USF is going to lose, Boston College will drop a game (most likely at Virginia Tech), South Carolina will lose to Florida, Kentucky will lose at least one, if not two more games, Arizona State will get waxed by Oregon and USC, Oregon will lose to USC, West Virginia lacks any sort of consistency in big games, and Virginia Tech will drop an easy game in mid November and choke after 8 weeks like they do annually. That leaves me with Ohio State, LSU, USC and Florida who will be making a BCS push. Notice a similarity in all these teams? They are the big boys of college football the big boys separate themselves when it matters. The USF’s, the BC’s, yeah they are cute, October stories. The Boise States of the past, those are few and far in between. When all is said and done, the top notch schools play in the top notch games and win the title that matters. Don’t agree? I’ll list the national champions from the past 15 years:

1992 – Alabama

1993 – Florida State

1994 – Nebraska

1995 – Nebraska

1996 – Florida

1997 – Michigan/Nebraska (split)

1998 – Tennessee

1999 – Florida State

2000 – Oklahoma

2001 – Miami

2002 – Ohio State

2003 – USC

2004 – USC

2005 – Texas

2006 – Florida

Now go ahead and show me where the Cinderella team is? There is none. So don’t read into these BCS rankings and get bent out of shape if your team isn’t given the respect you think they deserve, or if you think your rival school is getting too much love. We’re only half way through the season. Instead of whining or getting excited about the rankings, look up your teams schedule and find the game where they play the top tier teams. Circle that game. Mark it with all the highlighters you have. If you are playing an LSU, a Florida, a USC, an Ohio State, or any other school that has relevant national meaning, you need to make sure your school wins that game. If you take care of that game and handle the rest of your lousy schedule, you’ll be fine when the season comes to an end. If you don’t win your big game, don’t bother whining about the BCS or AP rankings. It doesn’t matter if you’re 17^th and you feel you should be 15^th. Who cares?

Look I want Virginia Tech to be in the national championship, just as any alum would. But we squandered our big game against LSU. That was OUR chance to make the statement and handle our business. We let it slip. Therefore, I’m not whining about being ranked 11^th. I’m not going to whine if a team with two losses ends up ranked higher than Tech at some point. I’m lucky though. My school has one more chance to beat a top 5 team in one season, which is rare. So circle your big games, win your easy ones, enjoy the second half of the season, and as Terrell Owens would say,

“Getcha Popcorn Ready.”

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